ABILENE, TX – The holiday season is a time for giving, something that twin sisters Megan Gibbs and Erin Currie, co-owners of Linen boutique in downtown Abilene wanted to emphasize this year.
“We opened in the middle of a pandemic and the community supported us so well, that we wanted to do the same thing,” said Currie.
So, the twins picked what they thought was an underserved age group.
“It’s easy to see like young kids at Christmas and want to gift them but I think teenagers get over looked,” said Currie.
So, Megan turned to Facebook.
“I had asked for people to let me know if the needed some help with their teenage gifts this year, if their girls were going to be able to get anything,” said Gibbs.
Megan originally was looking to help 2-3 families, but ended up getting dozens of responses.
“Which was a little over helming at first, but then I started getting messages from other people if they can send in money,” said Gibbs.
And 48 hours mater, Megan and Erin had raised over $1,700.
“Being a teenager is really hard, and being a teenage girl is really, really hard, and being a teenage girl who might not have as much as other girls is even harder,” said Currie.
And while they could have spent the money at big retail stores, they wanted to give the girls boutique clothes that maybe they couldn’t otherwise afford.
“So, we reached out to our neighbors, all the boutiques around us to see if they would be willing to donate or sell deeply discounted items, and they all said yes,” said Currie.
Boutiques Betty & June, Karson’s and K. Ellis were able to pitch in.
“Shopping small and local is something that’s obviously important to us, so we wanted to give back to the stores around us at the same time as giving back to other people,” said Gibbs.
And they were able to gift 53 girls from Abilene, San Angelo, and Brownwood, Texas.
“Everybody got at least two clothing pieces an accessory whether it was jewelry or fuzzy socks, a scarf, whatever we could pull together,” said Gibbs.
Megan and Erin say this will become a new tradition for their store.
